


Recognize You Live In It

by TheFlirtMeister



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Friendship/Love, Moving, Realization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 05:51:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11479977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlirtMeister/pseuds/TheFlirtMeister
Summary: “Why did you come here?” Liz asks. It comes out rude, and she cringes.Michelle raises, and then lowers one shoulder. “I don't know really. It just felt like the right thing to do.”





	Recognize You Live In It

**Author's Note:**

> I just really like girls, okay??

The hardest part of moving out is packing up her stuff. Liz didn't realise she had so much of it, so many boxes of clothes and books and ornaments. So many memories, so many fragments of her life. Liz imagines sticking them all together, every scrap of fabric, every crumpled ticket stub, making herself out of all these objects. A new girl made of old.

She leaves her cork board until last. It's been up on her wall since she was 13, and it's covered with photographs of all her friends. There are so many photos that they've started to overlap, and some have faded from where the sunlight hits the board.

The latest photograph is the decathlon team on the bus, Peter with his arm slung around Ned, grinning at the camera, Flash with his tongue out. Abe is doing peace signs, and Cindy has pulled her hair in front of her face to make a moustache. Michelle is there too, pretending to be reading but staring at Liz, her dark eyes twinkling. The photo makes Liz's heart hurt.

She doesn't want to let them go. She doesn't want to take down all these photos, and shove them away in a box, and pretend that this wasn't her life. That she didn't live here, with these people, and she loved them. Liz's eyes drift over to a photo that was taken a month ago, in the garden with her parents. She's half perched on her Dad's lap, and he's got her arm around her waist, holding her safe. He's grinning, and Liz is grinning, and the camera is slightly blurry from where her mom was laughing as she took it. Liz stares at herself, her stupid innocent self, and feels the tears prick at her eyelids.

A knock at her door makes her jump, knocking one of the boxes off the bed. It's only one of the boxes with her old stuffed toys in however, but Liz feels guilty all the same as her teddies fall out onto the carpet. They stare up at the ceiling, smiling, and Liz moves them all into a pile with her foot.

“Yeah?!” She calls out. Her voice is hoarse, she hasn't been doing much speaking lately.

“It's a friend for you.” Her mom replies, and Liz's breath catches in her throat for a minute at the audacity of Peter Parker showing up at her house.

Instead, the door is pushed open, and Michelle stands in the doorway. She's wearing a pair of dungarees with a patch on the pocket that reads 'Leave Me Alone', and a pair of glasses that are comically large on her. She looks out of place. Liz's mom stands beside her, frowning.

“This is Michelle.” Her mom says, as if Liz didn't know who her own friends are.

“Hi.” Liz says. Michelle raises a hand in reply.

“I'll leave you two to say goodbye.” Her mom says, and she probably doesn't mean it to sound so painful, but it does. Michelle steps inside the room, and Liz's mom gently shuts the door after her.

There's a beat of silence. Michelle interrupts it by dropping her backpack onto the floor.

“Nice teddies.” Michelle says, and Liz looks at the stuffed toys on the floor.

“Sorry, they fell out of the box.” She says, and kneels down to gently place them back inside. “I'm probably going to donate them.”

“They're cute.” Michelle says, watching her. “I like them.”

“I never would have taken you for the cute and cuddly type.” Liz says, with a smile.

“I'm not.” Michelle replies, “They just suit you.”

“I bet you have a cuddly snake or something.” Liz says, and Michelle taps her fingers on her legs.

“Nah. Cuddly spider for me.”

Liz finishes putting them away and then straightens up. Michelle flicks her eyes up and down her, and Liz automatically wraps her arms around her waist.

“How did you get here?” She asks, trying to make small talk.

“I biked.” Michelle says, and then sits down on Liz's bed. “May I?”

“You already are.”

“Guess I am.” Michelle says, and grins. Liz sits down too, but a little way away. If she stretched out her legs, their feet would just touch.

“Why did you come here?” Liz asks. It comes out rude, and she cringes.

Michelle raises, and then lowers one shoulder. “I don't know really. It just felt like the right thing to do.”

Liz watches her. Michelle doesn't fit in her bedroom, but she finds that she doesn't mind it. Michelle has only been up here twice before, once when they were studying together, and the other time when it was the party. They'd both been tipsy, and Michelle had lain on Liz's bedroom floor and told how how pretty she was in her dress.

“They made me Captain of the team.” Michelle says, breaking Liz out of her thoughts.

“I know.” Liz replies, “I put in a good word for you.”

Michelle raises her eyebrow. “Shit Toomes.” She says, “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Liz says, “You're the best man for the job.”

Michelle finger guns. “God, could you imagine Parker as Captain?” She snorts to herself. “What a mess.”

Liz looks down at her feet. She's not wearing any shoes or slippers, and she can see that she needs to repaint her toenails.

“Aw shit.” Michelle says, “You two were a thing.”

“We didn't even kiss.” Liz says, as if she's apologising. “He just took me to Homecoming. And then ditched me.”

“Yeah, he's good at that.” Michelle says. “I'm sorry Liz. Lizzie. Liza Minnelli.”

Liz looks up at that, and Michelle is looking straight at her. Her lips quirk upwards in a smile, and Liz finds herself smiling back.

“I brought you a present by the way.” Michelle says, almost shyly. She reaches into her backpack and pulls out a small gift, wrapped in purple holo paper.

“Oh, you didn't have to-” Liz starts, but Michelle waves her hand.

“Shut up. Yes I did.”

“I-” Liz starts, and then stops herself. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome.” Michelle replies, and hands it over. “You can open it now if you want.”

Liz runs her hands over the wrapping paper, feeling it crackle underneath her fingers. “I like the colour.”

“I know you like girly stuff.” Michelle looks around Liz's pastel room. “I don't.”

“I know you don't.” Liz says, and laughs. She very carefully unpeels the sellotape with her fingernails, and removes the present from the wrapping paper.

“So slow.” Michelle says, “I bet you're a delight at Christmas and birthdays.”

“Shut up.” Liz says, and then stares at what Michelle has bought her. “Oh!”

It's a sketchpad. A proper sketchpad, one of the expensive ones that Liz spends her time sighing over in the art shops she frequents. It has smooth paper the colour of buttermilk, and Liz strokes it gently, like it's a pet.

“You like art and stuff.” Michelle says, “So there you go.”

“But,” Liz says, “I didn't even know people knew I liked art! Or that I drew?!”

“I've got spies.” Michelle says, and taps her nose.

“You are such a lovely person, deep down.” Liz says, and places the sketchbook on the bed to pull Michelle into a hug. “Thank you.”

Michelle is stiff to hug, like trying to cuddle a tree. She's warm though, and Liz can feel her breath against her ear. Her curly hair tickles the side of Liz's face, and it makes Liz scrunch up her shoulder a little bit.

“It's no big deal.” Michelle shrugs. “You deserved something.”

“But still.” Liz says, pulling away, “Thank you.”

There's another beat of silence. Michelle looks down at her lap, but Liz looks at her. She hadn't truly realised until now, how much she was going to miss Michelle. Especially all her stupid comments, and rude hand gestures, and the way that Liz always seemed to catch her looking at her.

Liz thinks back to the photograph on her cork board, of Michelle pretending not to stare. And then she realises that they're alone in her room, and Michelle is on her bed, and Michelle brought her a present.

“I'm going to miss you.” Liz says.

“I'm going to miss you as well, Tombstone.” Michelle replies, using her old nickname that Liz hasn't heard in a while.

“I'll come visit.” Liz says, “I promise.”

“Nah, you won't.” Michelle says, leaning back as if it's all so obvious. “You'll find other, better, friends, and a new decathlon team to champion, and you'll hardly remember us.”

“I will.” Liz says, a little desperate. “I will come back.”

“What's here for you?” Michelle asks, and Liz thinks of Michelle hugging her when they won the championships, and her face pressed against hers.

“You.” Liz says, and leans across to kiss her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comment and Liz and Michelle will be the ultimate power couple.


End file.
